Bob Madison with a copy of his book and an example of his black and white watercolor paintings that he uses in the book and lectures. (Photo submitted)
WESTFIELD- The third lecture in the Westfield 350 lecture series will take place Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. with Bob Madison speaking about the history of the canal greenway and the rail trail.
The lecture was originally scheduled to take place at the Westfield Athenaeum, however due to the popularity of the first two lectures, it is being moved to the First Congregational Church.
“I wrote a book, called The New Haven Northampton Canal Greenway, the Columbia Greenway is part of it,” said Bob Madison, “There are about 18 different trail names between New Haven and Northampton.”
Madison, who grew up in Westfield, said he wrote the book because he learned that there used to be a canal that went through Westfield that many people do not know about. He will make a PowerPoint presentation to help preserve the history of the canal and rail trail. Lost or forgotten rail systems are becoming popular as recreational areas, including the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail, which is set to be completed in a few years.
“A book about a canal would be pretty boring,” said Madison, “But it dawned on me that there was a railroad after the canal went bankrupt. When the railroad also went bankrupt, advocacy groups paved over where the tracks were.”
The cover of Bob Madison’s book. He uses the black and white canal boat seen here as a way to bring the narrative north through the canal. (Photo submitted)
The result is the existing free-to-use bicycle path that runs from New Haven to Northampton, the Westfield portion of which is known as the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail. Madison has sold several hundred books thus far since it was published in 2016. All the money raised from the sales is donated to the Southwick Historical Society and Madison receives no profits from the sales.
He guides the reader through the book using his own watercolor paintings of the relevant portions of the canal he talks about. He makes a point to present the paintings in black and white to mimic what a picture of the scene would have looked like at the time, due to there being no color cameras.
“When I give my PowerPoint presentation, I will show the audience a color version,” said Madison.
Madison said that he appeared in front of the Westfield City Council recently to present them with examples of historical marker signs that he would like to see placed at certain points where the canal once flowed. He presented the idea of the Westfield Historical Commission having a ceremony to place a sign where Shaker Road and Cardinal Lane meet. Another point of interest would be on Arch Road at the point where Arms Brook flows underneath the street.
Similar ceremonies took place in Southwick on Route 57 recently to mark where the canal passed through in the town.
Madison’s lecture will discuss the history and geography of the canal and trail beginning in New Haven and going up to Northampton. Madison will spend more time discussing the history of the Westfield portions of the canal and trail before he moves onto Northampton.
“In a few years it will have been two centuries since they began building the canal in Southwick,” said Madison.
One of Madison’s watercolor paintings. He paints them originally in color, then he takes a picture and edits to to be black and white. This is a painting of what the Little River portion of the canal in Westfield would have looked like when it was still functioning. The base stones of the bridge are still in place today. (Photo submitted)
In all of Madison’s paintings, he features a fictional canal boat depicted as going north through the canal. It passes through the many ‘locks’ that raised the water level and allowed boats to travel further up the canal even as the elevation increases. There are 28 locks in Connecticut and 32 in Massachusetts.
“I only have an hour to talk about this. But I’m not even the expert on this,” said Madison, “Dr. Carl Walter, a physician at Noble Hospital who retired in the early 1990’s. He is the literal expert on the canal.”
In addition to the upcoming lecture for the Westfield 350 series, Madison will be giving talks in Granby Conn, another in Westfield later this year, as well as another in Hadley.
“This book will never be on the New York Times bestseller list, but by word of mouth, it has done pretty well,” said Madison, “I think I succeeded in making people aware that something unique happened here two centuries ago.”
